Adobe: “Living Room” Views Spark 388% Online TV Growth

Adobe has released the latest version of its US Digital Video Benchmark, which looks at the growth of online video volume across six-month intervals. The new report looks at the first half of 2014, when major sporting events, increased movie consumption, and a trend “living room” video streams all contributed to a 388% growth in online TV consumption over the previous year.

The big growth spurt for online TV–which refers to digital streams of TV programs–is not surprising. Most major TV networks offer programming through streaming video on demand (SVOD) platforms, and upcoming services from HBO and CBS will only cause these numbers to trend higher. Adobe’s report notes an 85% increase in the number of unique visitors watching online TV over the past six months.

These big numbers were partially fueled by sporting events like the World Cup and Winter Olympics, which corresponded with the biggest online TV spikes and did not occur during the previous year. Other increases, though, cannot be explained away by an even year. In particular, Adobe noted that viewers watched 125% more movies

over the measured period than they watched during the same interval in 2013.

Adobe explains that a main catalyst for this growth is increased viewership on over-the-top (OTT) devices, a category that includes digital set-top boxes and game consoles. Those platforms were a key growth area during the previous US Digital Video Benchmark, and the current report shows a 194% year-over-year gain on OTT devices.

Even if online TV viewership is “shifting from the computer room to the living room,” as Adobe states, mobile devices are still king. More than half of all online TV views came on iOS alone. While that doesn’t add up to as big a percentage increase as OTT viewing, iOS’ traffic share reinforces the ubiquity of mobile viewing.

Read the results of Adobe’s report here.